---
title: ‘Our children! where are our poor children?’ was the cry that was so… — The Red Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: ‘Our children! where are our poor children?’ was the cry that was soon heard in all the streets. Who acts: children. A sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Ratcatcher, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# The Red Fairy Book, The Ratcatcher, sentence 78

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‘Our children! where are our poor children?’ was the cry that was soon heard in all the streets.

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**Who acts:** children · **What happens:** be, hear · **To what, where:** cry, streets

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This is a sentence of «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Ratcatcher. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (children), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg540:32:78
# text = ‘Our children! where are our poor children?’ was the cry that was soon heard in all the streets.
1	‘	'	PUNCT	``	_	5	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	Our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
3	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	!	!	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
5	where	where	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
7	our	our	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	9	nmod:poss	_	_
8	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	9	amod	_	_
9	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	14	punct	_	_
12	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	14	cop	_	_
13	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
14	cry	cry	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	appos	_	_
15	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	18	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	18	aux:pass	_	_
17	soon	soon	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	18	advmod	_	_
18	heard	hear	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	14	acl:relcl	_	_
19	in	in	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
20	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	22	det:predet	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	streets	street	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	18	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | Our children |  |  |  |  | where *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **is a** | past |  | the cry |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **hear** | past · passive |  | the cry |  | all streets |  | soon *property* | vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: subject=Stimulus |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «The Red Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 540 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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